Our last days
by CrimsonMadness
Summary: An outbreak of an unknown disease accures in Zootopia, Ex Officer Nicholas P. Wilde is one of the last remaining few agents of the Division's first wave, a sleeper agent unit that was called into action soon after the outbreak of an Night howler like patogen. He didn't want to be in the unit, but he didn't have a choice.
1. Way back when (chapter 1)

*****One year ago*****

It was 3.00 in the morning, the moment Judy hesitantly waited for. She was pretending to lay asleep to catch her boyfriend.

It was two weeks ago when she found him treating a pretty nasty cut on his own in the bathroom of their apartement. She did rush to his aid but Nick just remarked that he needs to know how to take care on his own and pushed her out of the bathroom, slaming the door shut behind her.

Ever since then their relationship grew kinda colder, at least she thought it did. Nick began to fall asleep at work, more than before at least, and he had a sad look on his face most of the time.

She tried talking to him about it but he always just made a joke about her baybysitting him or completely ignored the subject.

Well today it was going to change, she was going to catch him leaving and confront him when he came back.

She was laying in bed with Nick, his arm holding her in a hug. The evening beforehand wasn't anything special, their usual movie night, but this time Judy picked some Romance movies so she could justify her wanting to sleep with him in one bed.

Suddenly she felt him retract his arm and start mooving on his bed "I have you now dumb fox" she thought to herself. She could hear him get off the bed and walk around a bit, then she would hear him leave out the door.

Judy sat up now, she waited for a few more seconds and then turned on the light in Nick's room, she stood up and began walking to the kitchen, when she realised the odd broken watch Nick once brought home was gone. It also caught her attention that his new backpack was gone too. "What is that fox doing behind my back?" she said to her self.

Two hours passed by rather slowly, with her eating some breakfast, dressing up, and thinking of about 1000 scenarios, some of which incuded: Nick not comig back at all, Nick coming back wounded, Nick coming back with Finnick, Nick comig back with a vixen. Her imagination had no boundaries.

When she finally heard the door lock "cling" She was sobbing on the sofa while considering the 786 possibility once more of him cheating on her.

She was ready to jump off the sofa and scream at him when she heared his calm and gentle voice.

"Judy?" Nick asked when he saw lights in their appartement. Next thing he notticed was the quiet sobbing coming fron the sofa and a pair of bunny ears laying on top of it."Oh no" he thought to himself.

He rushed to the couch dropping his backpack on the floor, to his dismay he saw Judy sitting on the couch, with tear trails on her cheeks and a box of tissues by her side.

"Judy wha..."

"It's ok Nick" she tapped the foxes nose, making him stop talking. "I won't mind if you don't like me after all" she said, her voice shaking, and words being interrupted by sobbing.

"What are you talking about Judy?" He said, his voice soft and a nervous smile on his face.

"Aren't you dating someone else?" Judy asked nearly breaking out into an uncontrollable tear storm.

"No fluff, I love you" he said placing a little kiss on her cheek "why would I date someone else when I already have the best girlfriend in the world?" He continued while grabbing a hold of her paw.

Judy felt a rock fall off of her heart, she fell off the couch into his arms, watering his brown leather coat like a sprinkler watters the grass.

"Here you go" softly stated Nick, petting Judy while she was hugging him, now a smile on his face. "Where did that idea come frome Carrots?"

"You were leaving in the middle of the night, and you were weirdly cold to me and..." she spoke while crying, at some point tuggling into his coat, completely muffling her own words.

"Don't worry Judy, it's over, I won't be leaving any time soon" he said

*****present*****

Nick wiped away tears with his free hand, his and Judies old apartement in front of him. Nick grabbed the door handle and pushed it open, the inside of the appartement dark and empty.

He entered the appartement, his heavy boot shattering the broken picture frame with a picture of him and Judy together. He looked at his wrist, the watch on it calmly glowing orange in 2 second intervals.

"Safe zone" he sighted relieved and closed the door behind himself.

He took off his gas mask and put his assault rifle on safety. He decided to sit down on the couch he once owned, when he finally sat down, he heard a familiar beep from the scanner attached to his backpack, then a robotic female voice could be heard from the device.

"Echo scanned"

*****Half a year ago*****

"Open this fucking door you bitch!" Shouted a voice from behind the door

"Step back or I'll shoot"  
Judy shouted holding her gun pointed at the door, she already called for backup.

Judy was sitting at home, just minutes ago. Chief Boggo gave her a day off, despite the bad situation in the citty. Normally she would be spending that time with Nick, but he was gone.

It happened last week when Nick just disappeared five days after the outbreak.

Now there was a sick psycho banging at her door, she feared him breaking it.

She put her finger on the trigger, slowly pulling it until she heard a gunshot and something falling to the ground. The screams stopped, she looked at her gun, took her finger off the trigger, and pulled out the magazine, the ammount of bullets in the magazine didn't change.

Her curiosity caused her to walk towards the door, she was about to look through the keyhole when she heard five knocks on the door and a familiar voice.

"Officer Hopps are you okay?"

She swung the door open and threw herself at the fox standing there.

*****Present*****

The Echo stopped playing, tears rolling from his eyes once more. Nick remembered that day well.

It was his seventh day on the job as a Division agent. It wasn't easy, pretending that you didn't know any of the mammals that you spend more than a year with, he was slowly getting used to it when the local Division dispositor ordered him to follow a help request coming from his old apartement, when he heard the message attached to the coordinates he ran faster than ever before.

When Judy jumped onto him he wanted to hug her, kiss her, he wanted to be the Nick Wilde she knew, but he could not. He was agent 16, Officially Mr. Wilde was gone.

The only thing he could reply with then was a cold "You must have mistaken me for someone"

It broke her, or that's what he felt when he said it, but the training prepeared him for that. Or, so he hoped.

That day was the worst day of his life.

Tears were going in small streams down his cheeks now. He turned off the strategic display revealing a broken TV in front of him. Nick decided to go to the kitchen and eat some food he earlier got from the ZPD station, when he heard the doors opening. He rushed for the gun, instinctinly changing it to single fire mode. He targeted the entrance, moments later a familiar bunny, in the ZPD anti-terrorist uniform, strolled in, and jumped back scarred of the gun.

When he lowered the gun she entered the apartement.

"Agent 16" Said Judy.

"Officer Hopps" Said Nick.

And so they exchanged a cold greeting.


	2. You get used to it (chapter 2)

The food was horrible, not like a frozen brick of bread plus some field rations ever tasted good, but the company of Judy simply made it worse, it's not like he hates her or anything.

He hated himself, the Division, and those stupid rules.

*****One year ago*****

"You're still too weak agent" Matriarch stated coldly.

Nick was laying on the ground, bruised and beaten once again. It was slowly starting to become the norm for him.

Matriarch lowered her paw to him. He grabbed it and rose up from the ground.

"You need to train on your uppercut a bit more, then it'll be decent enough agent" She stated to him.

Afterwards he bowed and left the ring for another agent to step in.

The Matriarch was a polar bear, and the best martial arts fighter in the Division. Some agents said that she was personally chosen for the job by the mayor.

The trainings in the middle of the night were mandatory since it was entierly a secret endevaour. He didn't like it nor want it, but when he was chosen for the program he could not resign. Once you knew about the Division, before an emergency, you had to be a part of the program.

He thought about it once, about leaving. But each time he tried he was forced into it even harder, until after one attempt at not showing up for the training he got a choice, he would either train each day or get charged with treason.

He chose the trainings,

After every mammal was dissmissed Nick stayed behind, he had a question to ask.

"Matriarch" he begun once the last agent left the room.

"What is it agent 16?" She asked still concerned with her gear, screwing with an automatic turret.

"I have a question about the rules" Nick answered , his voice making it seem like he wasn't scared of the answears.

"Ask away agent" She answered putting down the screwdriver and turning around to face him.

"Will our relatives ever know of our job? If so can we tell them?" Nick asked his voice slowly beginning to shake.

The Matriarch gave him a sorry look for a split second, then turned her face to the ground and took a deep breath.

"It's about that bunny isn't it?" She sightd, feeling remorse for the fox. Not many animals were paired up, most of them had no relatives, but Nick was different. He had someone who was probably going to become a relative pretty soon, and leaving her alone, will be hard for him.

"Yes sir" He stated firmly, feeling tad bit better with the knowledge she knew what he was talking about.

"You've read the rules, you have to cut off all your relatives once you become active. You can not talk to them like you would or care for them, officialy you are missing or dead." She said, now looking straight into his eyes.

Nick saddened at that, yes he did read that rule book, he despised it.

"But, what if I told her before I were to become active?" He asked with a childish hope in his eyes.

"If you do, we will have to pull her into the program" She stated coldly.

His heart skipped a beat, "Then she won't get seperated from me! Yes this is what I'll do!" He thought to himself.

A joyous grin formed on his muzzle, confusing Matriarch.

"Thank you Matriarch, I'll see you on the next training" He said

"You're, welcome?" She asked pretty confused by his reaction, but Nick didn't listen, he was already going out of the building.

The next day durring a coffee break in the middle of a patrol.

They stood just outside a caffee, the ZPD car parked around 10 meters away.

Nick stood next to Judy, both of them drinking their coffes. "It's now or never Nick" he thought to himself.

"Hey Carrots, I've got to tell you something" Nick began, looking down at the bunny standing next to him.

"Spell it out then." She replied, her violet eyes staring into his, her voice ever so soft, a small coffee made moustache on her lips. "Cute" Nick thought to himself.

"We haven't hanged out for quite a while now, and..." Nick stopped mid sentance, the confidence in what he was about to do suddenly dropping to the floor. "What am I doing?" He thought. He wanted to be with Judy, but he didn't want the risk of her getting cut off from her over 300 bunny strong familly. What if she hated him for pulling her in for his own selfish reason?

"Hey Nick! You there?!" Judy yelled at him, pulling him back to reality. "Why did you stop mid sentence?" She asked with a genuin interest and a slight bit of annoyance evident from her tone and expression.

"Oh it's noething fluff, it was just a thought" He leaned back on the wall of the caffee, a barely visible nervous grin on his face.

"Come on, tell me Nick" She said.

"Believe me it's nothing" he stated, the bunny now, was starting to get visibly annoyed.

"Well I don't believe you, so tell me" Judy declared, a little frown on her face.

"I don't care, so, I won't" He stated carelessly.

"If so..." she said and snatched Nicks coffe from his paw.

"Hey!" He shouted in a jokingly exaggrated manner. "That's a low blow carrots" he said.

"And I'm willing to get even lower if you don't tell me Nicholas" she threatened with an over the top serious look on her face.

"Oh and how _low_ exactly, are you willing to get fluff?" Nick said, lowering his glasses and seductively playing with his eyebrows. Judy simply rolled her eyes and then with an evil grin stepped on Nicks tail. "OW!" He cried out over dramatically."Ok you win fluff!"

"Oh, I thought you'd like that" she smirked, faking dissapointment.

"Well..." Nick stopped to think something up. "Since they opened that new hot pool in tundratown I thought we could go for _a swim_ but, I remembered how _embarassed_ you where in the naturalist club little meeting place..." Nick said with a pretty regular expression doing a big fake smile in a jokingly manner. Judy suddenly begun laughing.

"Oh and what kind of hot spring is that? Since you connect the two is it another one where you **need** to be completely naked?" She said still laughing, and punched Nick lightly in his shoulder.

"No it's not, I just thought that revealing _any_ of your fur for anyone to see would be embarassing." He said, accenting the 'anyone' part, making the entire sentence seem like a challenge.

"Oh of course, like you were a week ago on that party?" She said raising an eye brow.

"Oh come on, I said I was cold." Nick stated placing a hand on his chest like he was insulted and making big eyes faking being surprised.

"Yeah, sure you did." She said, her eyes trailing off to the side. No longer looking at Nick she spoke again. "So... do you want to go to that _'hot pool'_ or not?".

Nick, to his amazement caught off guard by the question struggled to respond for a moment, but after a couple second mental battle with himself he only manged to get a "yes" out of himself.

Then it was back to parking duty, and the hot pool later that day.

*****Present*****

**"**Why so gloomy agent? I thought you agents aren't supposed to have feelings" Judy stated to him in a tone as cold as dry ice.

Nick turned away for a moment putting down his food and drying up his eyes, which were beginning to water.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you officer" he begun and looked her in the eyes. "But we do have feelings, most of us left someone important to us behind. I simply left someone very important, and this place reminds me of that person" He said in a tone as calm as possible given that he was talking about her.

But Judy had none of it. He left her, it was his decision, she wanted to slap him for that, she wanted to push him to the ground and force him to admit he was Nicholas P. Wilde and that he left her because he didn't want to be with her.

"Well I hope that person fogives you one day!" She half shouted, feeling tears coming out of her eyes. Afterwards she rushed into her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind herself.

Nick just sat there, feeling regret, soon he picked up his food and finished eating. Afterwards he picked up his weapon and backpack, he wanted to say goodbye but at the last moment he decided against that and simply left closing the door behind himself.

Judy laid in her bed, waiting for Nick to come in, apologize or something, she would be still angry at him no doubt but, she could forgive him. Minutes later Judy heard Nick stand up, she prepeared herself to look as angry as possible, she even thought of what she would say, but he didn't come, she heard him leave their apartment. Judy soon was sobbing into her pillow, thinking "why are you doing this?".


	3. It was easier then (chapter 3)

Nick stepped out of the building, gun raised and ready to shoot. His gas mask was on his muzzle once more.

The air outside was breathable, but it wasn't safe, the gas mask filter cleared the air from possible bacteria that could be hiding in the air.

Nick walked down the street, an orange arrow projected on his gas mask's glass, leading him towards the ZPD station. He had to come back for munitions and get new orders from Matriarch, she was now the mammal that run the place, Chief Bogo was seccond in command.

The cold slowly got to him, first to his feet and paws, then his arms and legs, and then to his upper torso. The temperature was getting worse each day and there weren't any stores to buy some protective clothing.

Nick sidestepped off of the road, going into one of the many tennament houses

It all started with a terrorist attack on the tundra town wall, it shook the entire city, and was quickly followed by a disease outbreak. It seemed oddly convenient for some mammals but no leads were exposed which lead to the outbreak being regarded as an _unlucky incident_

Nick rummaged multiple apartments, searching for any warm clothes. Many of them were completely empty, but none of them had what he wanted, at least he found an ushanka to cover his head and ears.

He pulled the Ushanka over his head and headed out of the building.

Nick knew this street way too good, the double rows of trees on both sides, the buildings that stood alongside it. The cross road in front of it. He chuckled a bit remembering how he and Judy found their old apartment, it was after a car chase with Flash when they were back on patrol, they passed by that building and Judy remarked that "it looked different than others".

*****one and a half years ago*****

"Hey Carrots!" Nick shouted as he approached her at the ZPD station.

"Hey Nick!" She waved back, waiting for him at the entrance.

It was Nicks third week on the job and it was just like he thought it would be, not too exciting, of course Judy bounced around with excitement each time, that they got an assignement different than parking duty.

It was one of those days, Chief Bogo assigned them to patrolling the central square because of reports of a speed devil appearing once more.

*****Here I place the entire Flash speed chase scene with the "you know you love me" line*****

They left him with a speeding ticket and some points to his driving license. Then they got back into their car and drove around for a couple more hours. At some point Judy stopped their vehicle for a moment to look to the side and drove off moments later.

"What did you spot Carrots?" Nick asked his eyebrow raised.

"Nothing special, there was a pretty nice tenement house." Judy stated with a small smirk at the beginning of the sentence.

"What was so special about it?" He asked looking around and eating their last donut.

"I don't know, it looked different" She stated sneaking a glance at Nick and the now empty box of donuts.",If you continue eating a box of donuts per day you're going to look like clawhouser within two more weeks."

"Hey!" He half shouted his mouth full of the donut, Judy chuckled. "I don't have those things at home, and they're great!" He happily said licking icing from his fingers.

"Where do you live anyways? You never told me actually." Judy asked stopping at a red light.

"Near that bridge, you found me under when you came back, in one of the abandoned factories" he said, not realizing that Judy stopped the car.

"You are living in an **Abandoned Factory**?!" Judy shouted in disbelief.

"Yep" he quickly said. "Why did you stop?" He asked pointing at the road.

Judy begun driving once more, there was quite a bit of silence until Judy collected her thoughts.

"I can't believe you are living in an old factory." She stated, laughing.

"Then do believe whiskers, what was it you said the third time we met? Oh yeah: 'avoiding taxes'." He said doing his best _Judy_ voice, at which she chuckled a bit.

"Well, I looked at that building because I'm looking for a new home, that flat I live in is getting pretty annoying" Nick hummed agreeing, he was there once and they left five minutes later because of the neighbours screaming: 'shut up or make out already!' "And" Judy continued, at which Nick lowered his shades. "Since you live in a dump basically, maybe you want to move with me? Only as flatmates of course" Judy blushed when she ended the sentance.

"I see what this is all about" He said in a sarcastic tone, at which Judy raised an eyebrow. "You just can't get enough of me Carrots" at that Judy stopped the car and looked away, feeling her cheeks burning with fire. Nick just laughed, looking at her reaction. "Don't worry Carrots, it's just a joke." He said, but Judy was still looking away, not showing her face.

"Ok, so do you want to live as flatmates or not?" Judy said with an expression so comically serious, that Nick barely held his laughter inside.

"Sure, I want to" He said looking into her eyes.

It was the end of that month that they together managed to buy a flat that was the perfect size, with a toilet, kitchen and three other rooms, one of them being linked to the kitchen. Judy since she was smaller than Nick took the smaller room. The room that was linked to the kitchen ended up being the living room, with a single couch and a flat screen tv.

It took them one month longer to start dating, and then, it all seemed perfect, well, perfect things don't last too long.

*****Present*****

Nick snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a scream. He was pretty close to the ZPD station but decided to go on his own.

He rushed towards one of the buildings and stopped in front of the doors, when he heard growling and sound of two mammals arguing. He turned to his right and jumped over a small wall into an alleyway. What he saw was a barely dressed otter holding another otter and a backpack that had some food spilled out of it, right next to them was a savage wolf on all fours and another wolf holding him on a leash.

"Listen you either give us the food or one of you gets eaten! It's that fucking simple!" One of the wolfs shouted at the otters, when they flinched at his scream the savage one nearly barked and tried to jump at them.

Nick raised his gun and pulled the trigger twice.

_BOOM! BOOM!_

Two nearly simultaneous explosions echoed through the air when the first wolf fell flat on the ground and the second one got shot in his hind leg.

Two Otters herded into a corner, holding each other, terrified.

The wounded wolf noticed and jumped at them.

_BOOM!_

Another explosion echoed, the bullet piercing Wolf's skull. His body lifelessly fell to the ground, blood spilled on the ground, the two otters sitting petrified in a corner, their eyes closed.

_Click_

Nick pulled out the magazine from his weapon, there was one bullet left inside of it. He then proceeded to put the magazine back in its place and leave the alleyway between the two buildings.

Nick pushed the gun onto his back, attaching it to a set of magnets in his backpack's side, and pulled out his pistol.

There were only 80 meters left to the ZPD station, and he needed to get some more munitions.


	4. But now it's all rotten (chapter 4)

Nick entered the ZPD station through a decontamination ring. The cardboard floor covering bend under his feet.

The ZPD station was the main refugee center and it was filled with mammals of all kinds that needed food and water, which both were starting to run out. Nick passed by the sick, wounded and starving, his gaze and direction fixated on the stairway that lead up.

Local Division headquarters were situated on the fourth floor in Chief Bogos old office, Chief himself now was situated in his deputy's office.

When Nick reached the fourth floor there was only a couple of meters seperating him from the headquarters. When he walked towards the door he looked to his right, a row of photos was situated on his eye level, "officer of the year" Nick read out loud the caption underneath the photo, each one of them had that caption.

He looked at the photos, first one was a rhino, then another one showed a wolf then Bogo was shown three times in a row. There were around ten more pictures until the last picture showed Judy, he only gave that one a glance.

Nick opened the door to the HQ, his eyes blinded by a couple flashlights. Seconds later flashlights were lowered once other agents saw Nick's Division watch and the scanner attached to his backpack.

He greeted every agent in the room and saluted the Matriarch, whom gestured for Nick to take his place beside the map.

"Ok, so now that everyone's here, let's begin the briefing" She begun by placing an orange glowing device on the map making it appear in 3d. "I don't have to reinstate how dire the situation is, the wall reconstruction stopped once more because of an attack." She said and pointed at the place of the breach in the Tundra town wall."agents 5, 9, and 64 will take three squads of four police officers plus volounteers and take back the breach." She said and waited for the designated officers to leave."Agents 8 and 19, we have a report on some weird activity in the central train station, they might be trying to break through the quarantine wall, we can not allow that" she said as another group of agents left. "16, there were some wheazels snooping around the pipes in the transition sector between central and rainforest districts, i want you to take a squad and check that out" She said.

Nick immidiaetly afterwards saluted and left the briefing room, leaving four more agents inside.

He entered the bullpen, seeing a group of officers leaving, all in full armours, the only thing recognizable in them was their race.

"I need a team of officers for a mission, someone was probably tampering with the water supply!" Nick stated, beginning of the sentance louder than the rest as to gain attention.

"I suppose that's us" a harsh robotic voice could be heared from the crowd of leaving officers. "We've been asigned to support you Agent, hope we make a good team!" The voice turned out to belonging to a sheep officer, there was also a wolf and a bull, but the team was one member lacking.

"Feeling's mutual officer" Nick stated shaking his hoof.

They got out of the bullpen. Nick picked up two spare filters, a couple magazins, and at the last moment when he was leaving the armory he turned back around to also pick up the ceramic plate for his balistic vest.

Back at the main entrance he met the three officers armed and ready. He wanted to move out but the bull grabbed his shoulder.

"There's one officer we're waiting for. She's late, which is rare but doesn't change the fact we have to wait for her". The bull stated, his true voice replaced by a cold robotic one.

The wait for that officer could have taken a long time, so Nick decided to take a seat on a bench, near the reception booth where clawhouser used to work.

He remembered the day the ZPD was forced to adapt those voice changers and masks. He remebered how much Judy hated them, and then the memory just poured in, completely clouding his mind.

*****half a year ago*****

The police station was beginning to close down. New recruits were already gone and Judy was finishing her paperwork. Nick was already sleeping on the opposite side of the desk, Judy didn't bother to wake him up, she'd get her opportunity to tease him, or do a prank on him or...

***SLAM!***

Judy's train of thought was completely derailed by Bogo slamming a stack of papers onto her desk.

"We have some new policies that we need to agree to, this is yours and..." Bogo stoppes when he looked at nick, seconds later loudly slamming his hand right next to him. Nick scared out of his mind fell out of his chair. "Nicks share of papers, do it before you leave"

Judy saluted and Chief left with a trolley full of papers.

She glanced at Nick slowly standing up and smirked right before digging into the paperwork.

Most of the papers weren't too interesting, increasing the mandatory team size from 2 to 4 and some other stuff about carrying more protective gear.

Nick was simply signing or copying the papers as ordered, not carring about what was inside of them but Judy felt she had to check what was inside each and every one of them.

An hour later...

Judy has just finished reading the new protest arrestement policy when Nick let out a abnoxiously loud yawn. Judy raised her eyes at Nick.

He rose up from his desk and slopily walked over to where Judy was sitting. He crouched down resting his head on top of hers and grabbed her in a hug

"Let's go home whiskers" Nick said tightening his grip.

"If you're going to immobilise my arms like you're doing right now, I'm never going to finish this and we'll never go home." Judy said, looking down on the next paper she had to read, there were only two left.

"Ok, ok" he said and loosened his grip.  
"You are realllly uptight today, maybe you want me to help you _'relax'_ at home" He said with a devilish grin, Judy didn't see the grin but the way he said it, it made her 'deconcentrate' for a moment.

"I might _'relax'_ with you at home, but you still should have read those documents." Judy patted the fox on the top of his head and focused back on her work. There was a moment of silence, during which Nick nearly fell asleep. Then Judy spoke in a slightly concerned manner.

"Nick look" She said and pointed at the document.

Nick rose up from her head and crouched beside her, looking at where she was pointing.

"Officer identity protection program" Nick read out loud. "What's wrong carrots?" Nick asked not bothering to continue reading.

"Doesn't it put you off? Why would they need to suddenly hide our identities?" Judy said with audiable concern in her voice.

"I actually prefer my name not to be just 'typable' in the web, just 'cause I'm in the force." Nick said with his casual voice.

"Nicholas, it's not simply about having your name hidden, just read here" She pointed at the document once more, this time grabing Nick's muzzle and directing it at the paper.

"Ok Carrots, I'll read it" Nick stated pushing her paw off of his muzzle and began reading said document. It took him a couple minutes to slog through the whole thing but when he finaly finished he looked at Judy with a questioning look.

"So, I read it, there's some weird stuff, but it doesn't mean it's a bad idea." Nick stated, with a questioning gesture at the end.

"NOT A BAD IDEA?! Nick tell me what part of having a mask covering your entire face and a voice changer all the time sounds like a good idea! Won't we look like the bad guys if mamals don't recognize us as living beings?" Judy said with pure rage slowly turning into sadness towards the end in her voice.

"Well, if you put it that way, it does seem a bit over the top." Nick said looking surprised at the bunny.

"It doesn't change the fact we're the only ones left from our shift. Can we just go carrots?" He continued with annoyed tierdeness in his voice.

"Nick, why do you have only one thing on your mind?" Judy said audiably annoyed.

"One: because it's the middle of the *yawn* night. Second: because I'm tiered and need to sleep" Nick said while laying down on the floor.

Judy looked at him, smiling under her nose. She signed the last file and laid down next to Nick.

"Ok, fine we can go now" she whispered and gave him a little peck on the muzzle.

Nick smiled and roze up from the ground, soon followed by the bunny, they left the station and drove to their appartement.

**Next day**

It was already late, fully kitted out with six other officers they were protecting a convoy driving from the harbour. Judy was driving the front patrol car with two black trucks and another patrol car behind them.

Nick sat beside her, his smg loaded and ready. The new riot gear made it impossible to recognize their faces or fur color so the only thing that made Judy know Nick was sitting beside her was the number on his shoulder pad. Judy also had one on her shoulder pads and they both had a ZPD logo on their backs.

The traffic wasn't too hard to move through, though that was a given since they were using the sirens. It was when they were passing by the city center that a mob of angry mammals decided to stop the vehicles.

The wall of mammals all kinds and sizes blocked the road. Judy used the horn of the vehicle but the crowd didn't disperse. Most of the crowd had covered their faces and was holding transparents with messages like: "#saveThem" or "No to police VIOLENCE".

They were alluding to the fights between the sick ferals and the police that first broke out on the day of the outbreak.

At first the crowd was preety peacefull, untill the shield wall unit showed up.

It was around 8 pm when they formed a wall in front of the vehicles and in about 20 minutes all hell broke loose.

The wall of shields started pushing against the rioters, clearing a way for the convoy, soon the vehicles begun rolling again. It was a slow crawl but the tactic was working.

Suddenly the crowd of rioters begun pushing hard against the shield wall. At that point the Rhino in comand of the RRU (Riot Responce Unit) gave the command to pull out the batons.

At that point acreams of horror and dread begun to fill the air. Attention of everyone was turned towards a group of ferals that was shreding the protesters at the back of the crowd.

Suddenly somebody threw a molotov into the shield wall and the RRU officers creating the shield wall charged at the rioters. It wasn't long untill somone fiered a gun and the convoy escort team was forced out of their vehicles.

At this point it looked like a medieval battlefield. The RRU engaged in a melee with the rioters. The convoy protection team begun arresting mammals when more gun shots were heared.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets whizzeled by Nick hitting home in one of his squad mates.

A cry of oain could be heared and the deaf clicking of an empty magazine.

Nick saw Judy rush to the aid of the cop and Nick followed her. She begun treating his wound with Nick standing in front of them.

It was a split second, a boar in a red hoodie rushed out of the crowd, gun held by him. He looked at the group and pointed his gun at Judy.

Nicks training with the weapon kicked in.

BANG! BANG!

Both guns fiered simultaniously. A breath later Nick shot another three rounds into the boar's torso. It begun falling to the ground seconds later.

Nick turned around to find Judy laying next to the wounded cop. He rushed towards her. He was on top of her when she begun moving.

"Judy!" Nick screamed, with shock in his voice. "Are you ok?" he said and begun looking for a possible wound.

"I'm fine, it's just a bruise" she said, pointing at a place in her back.

Nick looked there, the bullet was stuck in the vest, unable to penetrate. Nick grabbed the bunny in a hug.

"For a second there I thought I lost you" Nick said feeling his eyes watering.

It was a moment later when they stopped hugging that Judy spoke.

"It takes more than a single bullet to take me out!" Judy jokingly stated.

"I hope so" Nick quietly sighted to himself.

Judy has already gone back helping the wounded officer and Nick has gone back to covering them.

It was when the melee got fiercer that things turned really bad. Using ranged weapons was no longer viable as there were multiple un armed rioters fighting. Nick was holding down a rioter rabbit and Judy was cuffing him when another bunny jumped at Nick with a knife. Nick didn't have enough time to react and Jumped onto Nick.

The blade bit into the flesh of his left arm and the force of the impact combined with the surprise attack threw Nick off balance. He fell down to the ground, his arm bleeding from the wound.

The attacker pulled the knife out of Nick's wound and quickly raised it to strike the fatal blow, determination combined with mad rage filled his eyes.

He struk down, getting halted by Judy pushing him off of Nick, throwing him to the ground.

Nick instictively pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the atacker. The buny stood up and grabbed his knife.

BANG!

The gun shot rung through the air, quickly muffled by the fighting around them.

The bullet dug deep into the arm of the bunny. He flinched in pain, kneeling down to the ground. The knife once more laying on the ground.

Quickly he begun reaching for it once more.

"Don't do it!" Nick screamed at the bunny.

The bunny stopped for a moment, hearing the distorted robotic voice yell at him terrified him, which made him jump for the knife.

BANG!

Another gunshot rung for a moment. The now lifeless corpse of the attacker laid on the ground. Nick looked at his victim, examined each detail, he had to grow acustommed to the sight.

Judy looked away, she didn't want to think about it, the thought of that bunny laying dead there killed by her boyfriend, it terrified her, even thou' she knew he attacked them first.

Seconds later the rioters morale broke and they begun fleeing. More aresting ensued and among the chaos of police brutality couple remaining original convoy guards re entered their vehicles.

Judy and Nick both had blod splatters on their armors. They strapped themselves in and reignited the engine.

"This is convoy lead, report status over." Said Judy pushing a button on the car radio.

"Truck 1 to convoy lead I'm wounded but it's noething major over." Spoke the radio in a distinctly artificial voice.

Then there were a couple seconds of radio silence followed by a bit of static.

"Convoy escort to convoy lead, I've lost my partner but I'm fine over." Said the radio in a now sadder tone, still preaty indistinguishable because of the artificial voice.

"This is convoy lead, my partner will take over truck 2 and we'll resume on our route" Judy let go of the button, she looked over to Nick, who just finished bandaging his arm. "You ok Nick?" She aaid to him in a soft voice.

"Better than ever!" He said and presumably smiled, but she couldn't see the smile underneath his mask. "I'll go and get that truck running" Nick stated and left their vehicle.

It took them 30 minutes to get to the police station. After leaving the convoy to the officers at Police HQ Nick, Judy and the othe remaining officers od the convoy escort team got to go home for the rest of the day.

It was a gorgeous night, filled with sadness and despair.

*****present*****

Nick snaped back to reality, he looked over his stuff, finding noething is missing, he then departed his gaze towards his designated squad. They now were greeting a small bunny, her body completely covrered by the armor.

Nick picked up his stuff, put on his gas mask and aproached his officer reitnue.

"Are we ready to head out?" Asked Nick.

"Sure are agent" Replied the presumable squad leader, the sheep officer.

Seconds later they were already heading out towards the transition sector between central and rainforest districts.


	5. And it hurts like hell (chapter 5)

The squad cautiously moved down the street towards their objective. The cold breeze pushing against their ballistic vests.

As they neared the transition sector the snow got less rare to see. The street half covered with it and constant snow patches covering Nick's elbows. His jacket protected him from the increasing cold that now enveloped the street.

Finally they reached the sewer entrance, it was a small hole in the ground surrounded by caution signs and yellow tape. The snowy cover hid a car underneath it, Nick approached the lonely vehicle and brushed aside the snowy cover of it's rear view window.

It revealed an unused sever worker uniform and scratch marks on the entire back seat. The dark red blood stain laid on the seat next to the scratch marks. Nick grabbed the door handle but when he tried to open it the car door fell off. Nick looked inside the car, finding a half eaten skeleton of some mammal under the car seat.

The sight slightly turned him away, leading Nick to leave the vehicle alone for the time being.

He stood above the manhole. It's size only allowing mammals the size of a wolf maximum to get inside.

"Ok I'll go with you two inside" Nick ordered pointing at the wolf and the bunny. "The other two will stay up here and watch our backs". The sheep and the bull nodded in agreement and spread out a bit.

Nick grabbed the service ladder sticking out of the manhole and slid down to the sewer, the water splashing as he dropped into it. The bunny and the wolf were soon to follow, dropping in moments later The stench was unbearable and soon the beeping of his scanner alerted him to the existence of the virus. He quickly put on his gas mask and gestured to the two officers to turn on the filters in their helmets.

Flashlights illuminating the sewer canal, Nick pressed onward, officers following closely behind. It took them around 7 minutes to get to the service corridors that were accessible through the sewers.

The rusty door reeked with an awful stench that bit through the filter, Nick recognized it, the stench of blood mixed with rust.

Nick begun opening the door, it's lock breaking as he tried to push it open. When the door gave way it revealed a body pressed against it. It was a smaller mammal, unrecognizable because of the amounts of torn flesh that was sprayed all over the room. His stomach turned upside down at the site, he fought with himself not to puke at the sight.

After a couple seconds of regaining composure, or at least appearing to regain composure Nick pressed further into the corridor. He heard the two officers react to the bloody massacre and begin comforting each other. Nick didn't say a word to them, as he was having a confrontation of his own that took place inside his mind.

The main questions being, who did this, or rather, was he still here?

It took one more minute for the group to get going again. They navigated the maze like corridors leading them to the main pumping station. The entered the room on the catwalk above the main pump, what they saw was a weasel doing something above the water reservoir.

Before Nick could do anything the two officers jumped down. Nick followed them with his weapon raised, not pointed at the weasel exactly but in that general area.

"Paws in the air! ZPD you're under arrest!" Shouted the bunny cop in a modulated robotic voice.

The weasel jumped up, filled with fright, the jump spilling the water he had gathered.

"No don't! Please! I did nothing wrong!" The weasel begun screaming as the two officers moved to arrest him. "I only wanted water is that too much?!"

"You should have gone to the police station like all the others, not cut off the water supply and then steal from it!" The wolf officer shouted in an equally modified voice as the bunny's

"I didn't cut it off! You're getting it all wrong-!" The weasel begun pleading as the Wolf officer slammed him in the head.

"Fucking liar!" the wolf screamed, the anger in his voice still hearable through the modulation of his voice.

The bunny officer moved in to arrest the weasel while he was still on the ground, only to realize that the mammal was now unconscious.

"We'll congrats, you knocked him out." Said with disappointment the bunny officer to the wolf. "You know, he could have told us something."

"Oh it's my fault now?! Well if it's so important we can still question him at the station, now, let's just go" Wolf exclaimed clearly annoyed.

Nick in the meantime walk over to the pump and begun working on it.

"Go, I'll be fine" He said, the two officers looked at him and picked up the weasel when they heard loud stomps.

Nick raised from his work with his gun ready to fire, rapidly scanning every entrance. He looked at his watch, it displayed a red line pointing to his front, the enemy was close.

Loud breathing begun coming from the entrance. Nick fired a couple rounds into the darkness, them ricocheting off of some armor, illuminating the contour of something, something so big that it barely fit in the maintenance corridor.

As the bullets ricocheted the creature let out a menacing roar, it was a bear.

Nick begun discharging on full auto, barely able to hold the gun in his paws. The bullets slowing down the creature but none penetrating it's thick armor plating.

With another roar the monster charged out of the corridor, it's body covered in metal plates and armor, pure unstoppable rage in its eyes.

Nick ducked out of the bears way and begun reloading his weapon, the two officers behind him firing at the monstrous creature to no effect.

Nick with his gun reloaded ducked out of his cover only to be met with the bears paw meeting his face.

Nick flew a few meters slamming into the ground and rolling as his body began losing momentum.

Everything became a little hazy after that, the pain finally reaching his brain as the adrenaline wore off he grabbed a dose of painkillers from his vest an slammed it into his neck, injecting the dose nearly instantly.

The blurry sight seemed like a dance, the bears body sliding along the scenery and the two cops running towards Nick.

He begun rising from the ground as the painkillers kicked in, and picked up his rifle. The two officers passed him screaming something but Nick now kneeling faced the beast that was not mere meters from him, he pulled his gun upward and to the monster's head and as it opened its mouth he pulled the trigger.

As a salvo of bullets tore through the creatures insides the momentum of its charge carried the dead giant forward.

The last thing Nick remembered was the pain of a couple tons crashing into him and a claw biting into his arm.

Nick woke up in a hospital bed, the white ceiling un familiar yet comforting, he looked around, his body naked and laying under the sheets, he tried moving around but realised his arm was broken and immobilized for the time being.

"Where am I?" He mumbled to himself, not remembering what happened and when, or for that matter, how he got here.

As soon as he spoke these words a bunny entered the room, an armoured character seeming oddly familiar to him.

She took off her helmet revealing the last face Nick wanted to see again.

"Well Nick, you fucked up big time now" She spoke with force in her voice, one that normally did not appear in it's sound.

"I don't know who you're speaking of, but I'm not him. Now if..."

"DROP THE ACT! Everybody knows who you really are and there ain't nothin' changing that." Judy screamed at him, interrupting him in the process.

"Ok fine you won, i'm Nicholas Piberius Wilde, and now what?" Nick screamed back at her.

A devilish grin formed on her face as she pulled out a combat knife from her armored vest. "Now you're going to die." She stated in a calm voice with murderous intent as she began approaching him with the knife raised in one paw.

"Judy no! What are you?! WHY?!" Nick begun screaming in terror as the murderous bunny approached him.

Now standing right beside him, She let out a little giggle. "Because, you don't deserve to live silly" she said as she launched the knife into his chest.

Nick screamed out in horror and pain, as he woke up in a field hospital bed. He looked around himself, a not as clean room of the field hospital surrounded him.

The hospital itself was part of the police station, with other wounded mammals laying in the same compartment as Nick and the sick ones, comatosed, laying in the quarantine zone.

The other patients weren't surprised by the screams, the nurse did get over to look at him but as soon as she saw him sit up right, she went back to her business.

Nick's arm didn't look too great, the bloodied bandages covering most of his right shoulder, blood stains on his fur giving away the fact of how many times that bandage was changed. The arm itself was placed within a sling and forced still by the bandages.

Nick didn't try to move his right arm for that matter, it looked like it wasn't supposed to move so that was enough of a reason.

In around 10 to 15 minutes later the doctor emerged. She was a coyote dressed in a white lab coat, a pair of glasses and a mask on her face paired up colouristically to her yellow gloves.

"Agent, I see you're awake. Good, we don't need any more dead agents as it is." The coyote looked at him, approaching with a little notebook in her paw and a pen in the other paw.

"How long has it been?" Nick asked, terrified at the possibility of being in a coma for a long time.

"Don't worry, it's been only a day. But how eventful at that." She stated, lowering her head in a tiered manner, sighing the second sentence.

"What exactly, do you mean?" Nick said, stopping in the middle of the sentence because of a spike of pain in his right shoulder.

"Well, most of the Division assignments failed yesterday, only four agents surviving and most of the police detachment also got killed off. I'm tired of signing death certificates." The doctor stated resting her elbows on the end of Nicks hospital bed. "We still have an even bigger group of missing mammals, but we can safely presume that they either deserted or are dead."

Nick listened in disbelief, the division obliterated in one day. True the casualties were already high but how could there be only four agents left? Or more concerning, how could all of them die in one day.

"I'm Kelly Harrier, on the side note. I don't think we've met before" the doctor stated stopping his train of thought.

"No we didn't." Nick stated, his mind focused on the conversation once more. "How do you know all of that stuff anyway?" Nick asked his expression growing a tad bit more tense.

"I will be working with you agent, and the rest of your team."

"Mhm, ok, did Matriarch approve of that?" Nick asked with a not caring expression.

"She did, before she's gone missing."  
The doctor stated, in a cold and bitter tone.

Nick's sanity for a moment completely halted. Once it resumed functions he begun thinking: what, why, how, where, when...

"How could this happen!?" Nick screamed at Kelly, a loud growl leaving his muzzle just before the words.

Kelly flinched at the sudden scream, she then looked at Nick with a tear in her left eye.

"She wanted to, assess the threat, check something out, I got briefed on what she wanted to do and what was my role in it around an hour before she left" Kelly stated trying to remain calm, but her voice was shaking. "I learned that my dead friend was alive mere moments before I lost he, again." She said, her eyes now releasing tears in regular intervals.

"Wait, did Matriarch reveal her identity to you?" Nick asked shocked.

"She... did" Said Kelly wiping tears away from her face. "Anyways... you had a bears tooth stuck in your shoulder and it nearly shattered your shoulder bones. Other than that bruises all over the body and a few broken ribs" Kelly continued taking out a couple X-ray photos. "You will be fine but you need to rest for a couple days, as of your arm, I can't remove the immobilizer until the wound is sealed." She finished closing her notebook.

Nick nodded in agreement and the doctor begun leaving when she stopped in the doorway.

"I nearly forgot agent, you have a visitor." She said as a grey furred rabbit passed by her into the room.

"Hello agent" The rabbit started, her violet eyes meeting his.

In hers a combination of excitement and resentment, in his confusion and a bit of fear mixed in with anxiety.


	6. But I'll grow above it (chapter 6)

"Hello agent" the bunny cheerfully begun. The happiness in her voice weirdly misplaced in Nick's mind.

"Hello officer, what is it you are visiting me for?" Nick said, trying to put on a slight grin on his face to make the question sound less accusing.

"Well, I and the sergeant carried you back here from that sewer so I came to see if our work was for nothing." She said turning away, her ears immediately dropping after hearing the question Nick asked.

"I appreciate that officer" Nick said his tone calm and reserved.

His gaze fell upon the nightstand that stood by his bed, noticing a small letter resting pressed against the flower pot.

The letter rested there innocently, a familiar smell emanating from it.

A puzzled look on his face, Nick looked back towards the bunny, but Judy was already gone.

"You've done it again Agent" Nick sighed to himself.

He then proceeded to grab the letter with his paw, bringing it before his eyes and opening it.

Now Nick was sure of who wrote the letter. Not only did the letter smell like her but the handwriting was far too recognisable for him, and after the first glance Nick knew that this letter was from Judy.

Sadness and a sense of panic begun creeping into his mind as he read the letter.

_"_

_Nick, I hope you read this before I visit you when you wake up._

_I know you are Nick, no amount of lying and denying the truth will change the way you smell and look._

_I'm done with hoping that you turn around, admit who you are, and we go back to how we were before everything that happened in this City._

_I give you one last chance to make this right, after that you can be the anonymous agent all you want._

_I don't Care._

_Judith H._

_"_

Nick closed the letter, the cogs in his mind now working overtime.

He now understood where the presumed happiness came from, but he didn't read the letter then. It wasn't his fault, but still he couldn't help but feel a little guilty for putting Judy in that situation in the first place.

"Well, guess that's done, at least I don't have to worry about the scraps of our relation anymore." Nick thoughed to himself sighing loudly as he brushed away a singular tear from his face, that rolled down his cheek as he read the letter.

"Guess I'll get up and go check the HQ" He said to himself and begun standing up. The pain in his upper body immediately pushing him back onto his bed, forcing him to lay there for a bit longer. It took some time for him but Nick finally managed to get up and dress himself, in about 3 hours.

He was putting his coat on his shoulders when his watch beeped a code, signaling to him that there was a meeting at the HQ about to take place.

He slowly walked up the stairs, making the pain in his chest slightly more bearable by slowing down his pace. The room serving as the headquarters seemed oddly empty as he opened its door. The remaining four agents standing around the map.

The agents were (from the right paw side) a brown kangaroo with a green shirt, blue jeans and a pair of glasses on his nose. The sniper rifle slinged onto his back.

A grey furred bear with a black pattern on his head, a tracksuit covered by straps from holsters he used to carry two pistols and a giant HMG (heavy machine gun) on his back, a sling bag fighting for space with the weapon on his back.

Nextup were a pair of Lynxes, except for their genders they were really similar so Nick immediately assumed they were siblings. The male Lynx being slightly taller than the female one.

Both of them were sporting tuxedos, the taller Lynx a brown one, and the shorter Lynx a black one.

"Agents, what's our situation?" Nick asked with a tiered voice as he approached the map of the city.

"Well, generally speaking, we're boned." Said the taller Lynx with a bitter tone.

"It may not be that bad, but it ain't good either. For starters we have the failed assignments. Then we have the dead and MIA (missing in action) agents." Said the Bear in a calm tone with a slight russian accent sprinkled on top of it.

"It's a bloody massacre, that's what it is!" Marked out angrily the kangaroo.

"Let's all calm down, and look at what we can do." Nick stated raising his voice above the two agents before they begun screaming at each other.

Nick leaned on the table for support.

The mp looked very different from the holographic 3D version he was accustomed to, but he still managed to read from it.

"Ok so how's the situation with our supplies?" Nick asked an open question.

"Well, we have water for one but there is a problem with food, medical supplies and basically anything else" sid the taller Lynx.

"And, um... We're also understaffed" Shyly said the smaller Lynx.

"Ok so, let's start with supplies, where did we normally get them from?"

"We've got no idea chief, only Matriarch had that kind of info" Scoffed the Kangaroo.

Nick looked around himself in search of any notes laying on the map. Finding none he presented a question to the group of agents in front of him.

"Did she leave anything behind, any notes? Instructions?" He asked making eye contact with each agent separately.

"Only her bloody badge" The Kangaroo continued moving himself closer to the map and tossing a Division badge on the map.

The badge itself was a white eagle with spread out wings, an orange circle around it, on the circle a sentence 'Strategic Zootopian Division'. The badge was signed as belonging to Matriarch.

Each one of them had a badge like that but signed by them, in Nicks case it read Agent 16.

"Are you suggesting that again Bagger?" The Lynx exclaimed with visible aggression.

"We can't rule that possibility out Arthur" Said the bear to the older Lynx.

"Can someone brief me on what possibility we're talking about?" Nick asked raising his voice above the now nearly shouting agents.

"Going Rogue" said the kangaroo, eyes staring blindly into the map.

"Oh, that..." Nick's speech trailed off, this was something he didn't want to think about, his mind expertly keeping the very idea away from his mind. It was something that he had to keep in mind now, that his mentor and one of every agent at that, could be, a traitor.

"Agent you there? Hey!" The Lynx shouted in Nick's face. His paw waving in front of Nick's muzzle.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'm fine... " Nick answered pushing Lynxes paw away from his face. "So where were we before we started speaking about **that **possibility?" He continued, sliding his paw from his forehead to his muzzle.

"We were talking about supplies." Said the Bear with a thick accent.

"Yeah, so on that topic" The taller Lynx said looking already tired.

"If there are no notes..." Nick begun, surveying the map with his eyes. "Here! The Zootopian Emergency Reserves, since the building is inside of the central district Dark zone it should have remained sealed, with all the supplies inside!" Nick said triumphantly tapping the map in the spot of the ZER.

"But it's the most dangerous one" Remarked the Bear. "We don't want any more of us gone".

"You're right, um..." Nick stuttered and begun snapping his fingers as he tried to remember this agents designation number.

"Vasyl Romanow" said the bear, the expression on his face tensening a bit, the black pattern on his forehead looking ever closer to a V pointing right at his nose." We decided not to use our designations, there's no point anymore."

Nick was baffled by what Vasyl said, 'No point?!' he thought to himself. He gave up his life for this, he lost his loved ones and his friends. If there was no point for something, it was trying to go back to the past he was forced to abandon. Nick tried to regain his composure, straightened himself and took a deep breath with closed eyes. "Fine, but don't expect me to abandon the protocol, I'm as much agent 16 to you, as I am to myself." The last word burned with bitterness as he stated his stand on the matter. The group slightly taken by surprise with his reaction. "So, going back to the matter at paw once again..." Nick said, his voice now sounding like a pen sharpener grinding down on a constantly breaking wooden stick that laid dry for about a month. "... We'll be going in groups, two agents will go to the ZER, and three agents will take an assault team and try to take back the magazines in the Aquatic district, The last report stated that a group of armed scavengers crossed the main gate, expect heavy enemy resistance."

"Sounds like a plan, So how do we split up?" The kangaroo asked no one in particular.

"Well, in the Aquatic district there are multiple really open spaces, so Your Sniper rifle and Vasyl HMG will come in handy, as for the third agent, It's up to you to decide, it will probably fall under his belt to command the assault squad. As for the ZER I will go with the agent that remains" Nick answered.

Silence filled the room for a brief moment, the tension of going to the dark zone filling the air. a question came to everyone's mind, why would Nick go, he was hardly fit for duty as it stood, and it wasn't going to get any better any time soon.

Somebody was about to ask the question when the male Lynx spoke.

"If you're going to have a death wish on yourself then I'll go with you, my sister will go with Vasyl and John"

"Ok, it's settled then, let's get ready and move out" Said Vasyl concluding the meeting

Nick nodded in agreement and went off to the Division armory. The room was dimly lit by the orange coloured LED lights in most of the equipement.

Nick tapped his watch revealing a compatibility display that holographically transformed from displaying time. He then switched to different modes until he found the turret compatibility mode.

At the same time a turret in the back of the room sprung to life. The device looking like a small laptop, small for a wolf sized mammal, for Nick it was a rather large device.

As Nick approached the device reformed itself into a small case actually usable by Nick, he picked it up, the light weight alloys making it feel like a plastic toy. He attached the turret to the frame on his backpack and was about to walk out when the male Lynx entered the room.

He did notice Nick, but just moved on to gather his stuff. 'Guess you have to thank him for going with you' Nick thought to himself.

"Hey, thanks for picking this mission, it might be a one way trip you know!" Nick said immediately feeling stupid.

"Gee, thanks for cheering me up" The Lynx said angrily and sighted, turning around to face Nick. "But it's nothing, I'm doing this for my sister anyways. Name's Arthur by the way." He said extending a paw to Nick in a greeting gesture.

Nick shook his paw, they exchanged a word of greeting and without any more words they left the station, right behind them was the second team with their designated squad.

The weather got way cooler now, the snow covered most of the area, the trees, cars and walls of the tenement buildings, snow was everywhere. It even managed to hide mountains of garbage that run along the streets.

Nick could feel the cold now, even though he wore a lot of cold resistant gear like a winter jacket and the ushanka hat. It was starting to look like it was going to be the coldest winter yet.

Arthur was wearing considerably less protective gear, sporting only tactical gloves and a pretty big ballistic vest on top of his tuxedo. His weapon was a modified M16 with a short magazine and extendable stock, the Red dot sight on his weapon sporting an additional laser pointer.

Nick was using a m1911 pistol with an extended magazine, he also used mechanical sights and a green laser pointer.

The frost was already starting to grow on their weapons and soon as they begun getting further away from the station they put on gas masks as their scanners begun detecting infection spores in the air.

The early containment warning system in their scanners was a true work of art. The system was able to detect faintest amounts of the infection in the air and mapped out the infested areas in it's system, warning the user as he approached such areas so he has time to put on a gas mask.

The gas masks were helpful in this, since the pathogen that turned mammals permanently feral by damaging their nerve system, was spreading mostly through air. The filters could filter out most of the infection but there still were many examples of mammals getting infected despite wearing masks.

The duo approach an intersection around a kilometer before the gate into the dark zone.

It was an intersection of two small roads that had a checkpoint on it, the checkpoint itself was abandoned early after the outbreak, Nick only heard of how this went down but mammals said it was pretty grim

As they passed the first bartier of the checkpoint their ear pieces spoke

"Echo nearby!"

Breaking the silence of the blowing wind the voice startled them. Nick and Arthur looked around, checking for hostiles, but except for a couple feral rodents the area was safe, relatively speaking.

They took out pairs of special glasses, they made everything dark grey and let them saw orange 3d visualizations of what happened.

They searched the intersection not finding any echos outside, but there walks a single, torn up in a couple place, pretty big medical tent.

They entered the tent, it looked like a tornado came through it, but on the ground a pretty big orange circle begun appearing until the voice in their headphones spoke again.

"Echo scanned"

Nick and Arthur pressed the play button that now appeared on their wrist watches.

In front of them appeared three orange holographic representations of mammals, two of them were cops, a lion and a camel, there was also a moose doctor there.

The camel cop was laying on a medical bed, with the lion standing above them, the doctor was doing tests on the camel. Names near their representations had underneath them listed either 'missing' or 'deceased'. Then the audio clip begun playing.

"I took the blood, now I just need to run a little test" said a soft but male voice.

As if the shouting in the background wasn't enough there also was a deep sound of painful breathing, it sounded like steel grinded on a diamond cheesegrater and it only got worse through the couple second interval between presumably the doctor taking a blood sample and his next next sentence.

"Oh god, he's infected!" said the voice, clearly horrified

after that there could be a sound of a pistol being reloaded and a short silence before screaming begun, mixed with loud bark like sounds and gunshots. The recording stopped there. Suddenly Arthur touched Nicks shoulder to get his attention slightly startling Nick.

"There's a second echo here" Arthur said.


	7. And see others fall for it (chapter 7

The second echo was located outside of the tent, in a place hidden from view of the road. There was an orange silhouette of two mammals, or at least it was supposed to appear like this, one of the mammals was a bear and the other one glitched around changing its species in a couple millisecond intervals. The names displayed respectively, Matriarch and #Unknown#

As the echo begun playing his pistol nearly fell out from his grip.

"Who would've thought, that you'd actually come here to me" said a distorted robotic voice.

"Well, this seems like a better option" the female voice said with a noticeable lightness and playfulness in the tone.

"Oh, you were that eager, to see me" said the robotic voice with what seemed to be playfulness, but was too distorted to be sure.

Nick didn't want to hear this anymore, he turned the audio off before he heard too much.

He couldn't believe his own ears, the Matriarch, his mentor, everybody's mentor, she abandoned the directive just for this? THIS? No this isn't right, she couldn't, this is impossible, this is unreasonable, this must be a trick. YES, she's only doing this to get information from him, she's always been clever like that.

Nick's mind spinned in circles as Arthur continued watching the echo.

"Well, that's an interesting echo to say the least, i'll have to save it for later!" he chuckled trying to ease the situation, only to notice Nick staring off into the distance " Hey, agent, listen, she did this okay, she deserted for that guy, you can't change that, what is important now is our mission remember" Arthur told Nick, but he didn't listen, he was furious.

Arthur waved his paw and begun walking away, towards their objective. Nick threw his shade tech glasses on the ground, the impact shattering one glass. Nick, furious, walked up to the glasses he just threw on the ground, brushing away the snow from them he put the glasses in his pocket and run up to Arthur.

They both continued down their path, gas masks on their muzzles. When they arrived at the gate they stopped for a moment, a daunting gigantic wall covered by a black canvas, giant fans on top trying their hardest to stop the spread of the aerial infection into the town, of course they failed at that.

The air here was murkier, with a greyish tint, it looked like a fog but in actuality was a high concentration of the infection. Nick remembering what happened to a friend of his way back when, took out his pistol from it's holster, the laser pointer illuminating some of the fog, trying to reach a surface but dissolving somewhere along the way.

As they moved onward the air became even thicker with the pathogen spores filled fog. A small blinking red diode of the lock mechanism that was attached to the doors, leading into the "clean chamber" was barely visible.

The fog here was so thick in fact that when. Nick looked at his hands holding his pistol, he barely even saw a blob of colour that was them, only the laser remaining barely recognisable.

Both Arthur and Nick managed to get to the door and begun searching for a card reader that would open the door.

A they searched sounds of growling were growing ever more prominent. As sweat begun running down Nick's fur he turned around with his pistol to cover their backs. The fog made it impossible to cover anything tho'

His eyes franticly jumping from place to place as more growls were becoming louder and louder. Fear was something Nick was used to suppressing, but not like this, when he began hearing pawsteps he started firing.

BOOM!

A round exited the barrel, flying somewhere and not hitting anything

BOOM!

Another one fired as Nick took a step back, this time the bullet hit home, making something whimper. He could hear as the pack of creatures was now rushing towards him.

BOOM!

A bullet flew through the air, richoscheying off of some metal.

BOOM!

The next bullet flew from the barrel piercing some wolf's or dog's skull.

Nick didn't fire the next round, as 5 wolfs jumped at him, in the neck of things Arthur grabbed Nick by his collar and pulled him inside the clean room. Wolf's tried to follow clawing their way inside through the door, but Arthur grabbed his rifle and fired half of his magazine through the door, either killing or scarring off the rest of the wolves.

With the door filled with bullet holes they could no longer take off their masks inside the clean room. So they simply grabbed as many filters as they could and changed the ones in their masks. With his pistol reloaded Nick lead the way to the other side.

The airlock was in really bad shape, both sets of doors barely opening, and being pretty big chunks of metal that they were, even the small gap that they did open to was earned through sweat and tears. It was extremely exhausting for both Arthur and Nick. They quite literally fell out of the air lock when they opened the second door.

Nick and Arthur both got up pretty quickly, both of them immediately looking at their watches, searching for time left with their filters. They displayed 15 minutes.

As they both now searched their environments for possible threats it finally hit them that they were on the other side of the wall. The giant fans right above them rotating loudly it was a desolate wasteland, broken cars and destroyed buildings, some burned down. Nick remembered now how they fought a group called Cleaners back in the day, they tried to burn the entire city to clean it from infection.

Not like you could see any of that on the first glance, the fog here wasn't as thick but still ever present and everything within its reach covered in a brownish, yellowish dust that hid the history of buildings.

With light steps they swam through the fog, gasping for air with their gas masks, the fog not clearing up for a single moment. The barely visible sky was now beginning to grow darker and darker, the fading light fighting with the darkness, struggling for survival like a cornered rat, it finally succumbed, flashlights reanimating it's small portions, bringing them back to life, a former glory of themselves.

When flashlights grew insufficient they stopped at arms length.

"We have to find shelter, it's too dark for us to go any further" Said Nick calmly.

"Agreed, try to open your map." Arthur replied.

Nick turned to his watch tapping it, a shizzle sound being the only reaction, the watch simply turned off afterwards. Nick frowned at that, the inconvenience not being something he expected neither wanted. Nick squeezed his pistol tighter, gently applying pressure on the trigger.

"My watch is fried." Nick stated. In response Arthur begun tapping his.

"Mine is too. Damn it! I guess we have to find a safe house the old way." saying that Arthur took out a UV flashlight and tried flashing it on the building, but instead of lighting the building the UV flashlight illuminated all the disease particles in it's beam of light, making the flashlight generally useless.

With a disappointed sigh Arthur attached it to his belt again.

Nick took down his back pack and begun searching for something. Arthur glanced at him and stood guard, only seconds later they heard something running at them in the fog.

Muscle memory kicking in, he turned towards the origin of the sound and pushed the trigger, firing off a 3 round burst into a vicious, feral, goat, it's caracas falling in front of them, destroying an old wooden advertisement next to them, shattering it into small pieces.

Triumphantly Nick took out a physical map of Zootropolis. With a compass in paw he narrowed down their position and begun leading them towards one of small marked orange circles.

It was pretty hard to navigate though, with Nick having to sometimes physically brush off the Infection dust to read the name of a street, and groups of feral mammals running around trying to hunt them.

Finally they managed to reach the hideout just as it got pitch black.

It was an entrance to a small cellar, covered by brick walls of the bar above them. The white doors having an orange circle painted on them.

Nick pressed the door open, revealing another set of doors, this one having a scanner. Nick pressed his watch against the scanner, it beeped with satisfaction clicking the second door open.

They entered a small white room with another set of doors, a scanner on the side of a wall, a ventilation shaft on the top, and two window like openings with words above them, one spelling equipement, and the other one clothing.

"I hope they have something good in the exchange clothing lockers" Nick said as he begun undressing.

"That's why I always carry a spare tuxedo in my backpack" Arthur replied as he also begun undressing.

As they both put their clothing in the window labeled "Clothing", and their equipment like maps or guns into the one with the labeled "Equipment" both of the windows closed and the room begun the decontamination procedure.

"I fucking hate this!" Arthur cursed as they both left the decontamination chamber into a pretty spacious bunker like structure. "It makes my fur sticky and Ugh!" he scoffed angrily while scratching himself. Nick just looked confused at the Lynx, it was as if a completely different person was standing right in front of him.

"You can go wash yourself first if you want" Nick stated still mostly just standing there, his fur also sticky and messed up looking.

"Oh! I will!" Arthur exclaimed and darted it towards the bathroom like section of the bunker.

Now left alone, Nick for a moment pondered what to do, as of now he was standing completely naked on a carpet in an underground bunker that they were going to stay in for a night. He could get their equipment cleaned, it also got the same treatment as them, but jammed firing mechanisms are not as easy to clean as ones fur. Nick was about to go for their gear as he begun to feel cold, the decontamination procedure left him with patches of bare skin visible, and since his outfit was burning in an incinerator as of now, he had to find something in the communal clothing storage.

And so nick begun walking towards the clothing storage. The procedure itself used to be pretty annoying, with the whole burning clothes thing, but by now Nick grew tired of being annoyed and angry at 'minor inconveniences' like that.

He rummaged the clothing storage until he managed to find something that was barely suitable. He took out a t-shirt, brown sweater and a green Jacket, for his lower garments he picked out a pair of cargo pants, they weren't really his style but he had nothing better to pick. With the new clothing in paw he went to the main hall and waited for the Lynx to finish showering, which only took around two more minutes. And in around half an hour they were sitting with a touristic light set up in a dark room, a radiator between them, they were both sitting on touristic mats cleaning their equipment, still naked since their fur was now wet.

"So, why 'Agent', you at least could have picked a cool call sign or something." Arthur asked not looking at Nick. Nick did glance at Arthur but re focused his attention on the pistol which he was cleaning using only one paw, his second arm still immobilized for at least a couple more days.

"It's simple, and since nobody else is following the proto-"

"Don't turn the cat by its tail." Arthur exclaimed pointing at nick with a cleaning brush.

"What?" Nick asked visibly confused.

"It's a saying in my home region, nevermind. Just don't degrade it to following the protocol." Arthur said pointing his attention back to the weapon

"Well, but that's what it is about. I'm the last one who follows the protocol an-"

"You know what?" Arthur Interrupted Nick.

"Can you let me finish?" Nick said slightly agitated by Arthurs interruptions.

"No, as long as you are hiding behind the Protocole, okay?" Arthur said to Nick who was visibly offended by this statement. "We've all been there 'Agent', at first you feel like it is better to stick to the protocol since it 'protects' your personal information, but the truth is that it is just is a reason for you to not hesitate when you have to kill somebody close to you, since you are not theoretically you. " Arthur declared angrilly, Nick didn't respond to that.

He pondered about what he had just heard: could it really be that simple? I have killed so many, hiding behind a false pretense that I wasn't myself. But, so much time has passed, am I still myself, is it still possible to come back? Of course it isn't, I can't just say all of that didn't happen, it is who I am now... Nick stopped cleaning his weapon ...But, that makes me a monster doesn't it? A cruel being that simply lives to murder others. I am no better than the infected, killing like I am the god of this world, deciding the fate of those on the opposite side of my barrel... Nick begun staring at his weapon ...or, am I the barrel of someone's weapon? An insignificant being that doesn't need neither a heart nor emotions. I thought I was protecting mammals, but it turns out I was only slowing down the process, so that in the end I would just be murdering them later, so that I could consume them? W-what if my filters aren't sealed properly. I'm already infected aren't I? Guess It's better for everyone to end it here.

Nick turned the pistol to face him and grabbed by the handle, Arthur seeing that rushed towards him. Nick begun pushing the trigger, Arthur threw himself at Nick. He was to slow.

Nick pulled the trigger.

"BANG"

The pistol fired, but Nick was still alive. Arthur punched the weapon out of Nick's paw. The force of Arthurs charge throwing himself on top of Nick.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Arthur screamed at Nick.

Arthur was holding Nick by his fur as they both now just looked at each other, surprised, confused and terrified.

Arthur stepped off of Nick, he slowly walked away, grabbing the weapon along the way. He sat back down, when Nick just layed there, motionless.

Arthur looked at Nick and then examined the weapon.

"You're one lucky fox. Not only did the weapon jam before spitting out the casing" he said as he forced the gun to eject the casing, it falling to the ground and making 'clunk' noises each time it bounced off of the ground. "But the bullet got stuck inside the barrel" Arthur said as he begun disassembling the weapon.

Nick started getting up, while his ears were still ringing, he did hear what Arthur said. Shocked, he just now realised what he tried to do. He then thought of Judy, even though he knew she gave up on him, it would probably hurt her knowing that he actually died.

A tear rolled from Nicks face, and a *sniff* came out from his nose.

It was ten more minutes before any of them spoke again.

"You ok Agent? You just sat there still, for like twenty minutes." Arthur asked, dressed in his tuxedo pants and shoes, bare chested as to not mess up the rest of his tuxedo.

"I-, It's, It's Nick..." Nick struggled to say, as if the words didn't want to come out.

"Sure, Nick, you know, I should have expected that reaction." Arthur said pointing a spoon at Nick.

"You should?" Nick narrowed his eyes confused. At this point he realized Arthur was eating a can of fish.

"That's what ahhhh*gulp* did, when I realized that." Arthur said consuming a bit of fish from his spoon mid sentence. "I took the liberty of taking one out from your back pack for you."

Nick glanced in front of him, seeing canned bugs. The can would look really delicious if not for the fact he wasn't hungry. Nick never said it to anybody, but he really liked the little happy ladybug on the can carrying the company's name "Micro Heaven" it always brought a little laugh out of him. The irony of a can of bugs to eat had a happy bug as its logo.

"So, how are you still alive? Were you also as lucky as me?" Nick asked picking up his can of food, just to have something in his paws.

"No" Arthur replied placing the can on the floor, the spoon inside. "It was two months after the start of the outbreak, Me and my sister were working in our home district and were active agents for a month and a half. HQ got reports of infected activity in our region so we were the ones to find out what was going on. We got specifically a report of activity in our old family house. There was a couple ferals here and there, we evacuated civilians and were going to declare mission accomplished when we heard a scream of horror come from a floor below us, I was the first one to reach the scene. I arrived at the sight of my mother literally eating my father, she didn't realise I was there until I broke something as I began backing away. She looked at me and without hesitation jumped me. My reflex was faster though and I killed her with this gun" Arthur said holding up his assault rifle. "Then I fell to my knees and cried, and as I realised what I've done I tried to take my life, but my sister stopped me. Even though I forced her into the Division program she still saved me. This made me realise that I was still myself and that I could become a good mammal again, maybe not clear my name from all of the bad things I've done, but enough so that the one above us wouldn't send me straight to hell." Arthur finished his story.

Nick looked at him, not knowing what to say at first.

"Don't you have anybody close to you? Somebody you want to come back to?" Arthur asked picking up his can of food.

"No, I don't" Nick said, his head down, remembering how much he hurt Judy.

"What about that bunny girl?" Arthur asked, mouth full of fish.

"How do you know about her?" Nick asked surprised and slightly angered.

"There was a picture of the two of you in your backpack." Arthur stated.

"Oh, should've guessed that. It doesn't matter, she doesn't want anything with me anymore, and don't you ever look into my back pack again." Nick replied and stood up to dress up into his new clothes.

"Was it, recently? That she told you that?" Arthur asked finishing his can of fish.

"No, it was yesterday." Nick said.

"Well then, not all is lost, you can probably go explain and it will be fine, you will have to probably to start over with your relationship, but eh, It's worth a try isn't it?" Arthur exclaimed preparing his sleeping bag.

"Yes, yes it is." Nick said with closed eyes as another tear wanted to fall from his face. "Thanks, Arthur."

"Any time, Nick." Arthur replied with a smile.

It wasn't long until they both went to sleep. They had a big day in front of them.


End file.
